This conference attempts to explore and articulate some of the visibleintersections between ethics and postcolonialism. In this field, ethicscan be described as a "hidden term" underlying discussions around thesupposed "ruins" of a universal code of human rights and the unmaskingof processes of economic exploitation in the world today. Thisconference is being organized in conjunction with _Interventions:International Journal of Postcolonial Studies_.

Conceptual models of postcolonial engagement that center around LeelaGandhi's hospitality or "xenophilia", Edward Said's secular criticism,and Jacques Derrida's reconciliation, all can be said to stem in one wayor another from an implicit reliance on ethical premises. The aim ofthis conference is to excavate such principles and to make them morereadily available for discussion and critique. Is it possible toenvisage an ethics that can make sense of differing value systems in thedifferent cultures touched by the process of globalization? On the onehand, there is an increasingly widespread scepticism towards theuniversal applicability of ethical concepts, which is counterbalanced bythe powerful emphasis of postcolonial theory on the ethics of engagementand the necessity of intervention. Given these premises, it appearsparticularly urgent to envisage a more contextualized form of ethicsthat can nevertheless lay claim to a strategic validity in terms ofmoral and political accountability. Numerous and urgent questions make adiscussion of the ethical approach in dealing with postcolonial issuesnecessary: for example, is there an ethical aspect to violence incontemporary postcolonial societies, indeed could violence be seen as anethical necessity in some cases? Or in terms of historical reparationsand reconciliations, can ethics always be seen as restorative or arethere significant failures in this vision?

Such questions demand a sustained scrutiny of the concepts of ethics,human rights, and intervention, and will involve discussions ofconscientious activism in the inter-disciplinary overlaps betweenpolitics, literature, cultural theory, sociology? and development. Forthis reason, we plan to invite speakers across a range of academicdisciplines.

We welcome proposals on any of the following topics, or others which arerelated to the theme of the conference:

* the ethics of intervention

* Communitarianism versus individualism

* Ethics and development

* locality and globality in contemporary ethics

* "xenophilia", or adopting a cause that is not your own

* ethics and the multicultural public sphere

* Secular versus religious ethics

* Ethics and gender

* De-coding human rights

* Truth and Reconciliation Commissions

* Violence and liberation struggles

* A history of ethics and colonialism/postcolonialism: similarities anddifferences in conceptual approaches

Please send a 250-word abstract of your proposed paper by September 30,2005, to Neelam Srivastava at the following email address:neelam.srivastava_at_ncl.ac.uk

We are planning to publish an edited volume or journal issue of theproceedings.